Film
A Critical Introduction
3rd Edition
Published on 5. May 2011
Book
Paperback/Softback
480 pages
978-0-205-77077-9 (ISBN)
Description
Film: A Critical Introduction provides readers with the skills needed to successfully critique and analyze film and teaches strategies for translating ideas about film into written criticism and analysis. Intricate discussions of the current issues in film theory, from sound production to documentaries, keep readers' perspectives on film fresh and informed. Part I introduces readers to the importance of film analysis, offering helpful strategies for discerning the way films produce meaning. Part II examines the fundamental elements of film, including narrative form, mise en scene, cinematography, editing, and sound, and shows how these concepts can be used to interpret films. Part III frames the debates around ideological criticism, national and transnational cinema, and genre and auteur theory that animate contemporary film scholarship.
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Content
Preface?x
Part one
Introduction to
Film Analysis?1
1 Introduction?3
Cinema: A Confluence of Artistry, Industry,
and Technology?4
How This Book is Organized?6
Technical Tips?8
2 An Approach to Film Analysis?9
Understanding Audience Expectations?10
Expectations and Modes of Organization?11
Expectations about Genres, Stars, and Directors?13
The Orchestration of Detail?14
Motifs?15
Parallels?16
Details and Structure?18
Parallels and Structure?18
Turning Points?18
Repetition and Non-chronological Structure?19
Creating Meaning Through the World Beyond
the Film?20
Historical Events and Cultural Attitudes?20
Stars and Public Figures as References?21
Intertextual References?22
Meaningful References with Objects?26
The Goal of Film Analysis: Articulating Meaning?26
The Importance of Developing Interpretive Claims?30
Summary?30
Film Analysis: Reading Significant Details?31
The Orchestration of Detail in Pan's Labyrinth?31
3 Writing About Film?37
Getting Started?38
Keeping a Film Journal?38
Formulating a Thesis?38
Managing Verb Tense?39
Four Types of Writing About Film?39
The Scene Analysis Paper?39
"The Divided Human Spirit in Fritz Lang's The Big
Heat"?41
The Film Analysis?43
"The Anxieties of Modernity in Steamboat Bill Jr."?44
The Research Paper?46
"The New Vampire as Sympathetic Gothic Heroine in Tomas Alfredson's Let The Right One In"?49
Conducting Archival Research?57
The Popular Review?58
"Aliens as Apartheid Metaphor in District 9"?59
Part Two
Film Analysis?63
4 Narrative Form?65
Defining Narrative?66
Framing the Fictional World: Diegetic and Non-diegetic Elements?67
Within the Diegesis: Selecting and Organizing Events?69
Narrative Structure?70
Alternatives to Conventional Narrative Structure?72
Techniques in Practice: Narrative Structure in Stagecoach?74
Variations on Narrative Conventions: Beyond Structure?77
Perspective and Meaning?78
Character Subjectivity?80
Techniques in Practice: Noticing Shifts in Narration?82
Summary?84
Film Analysis: Analyzing Narrative Structure?85
5 Mise en Scene?91
Setting?93
Describing Setting: Visual and Spatial Attributes?95
The Functions of Setting?96
The Human Figure?97
Casting?97
Techniques in Practice: Same Film, Different Settings?97
Techniques in Practice: Same Setting, Different Film?98
Acting Style?101
Acting Brechtian: Distancing the Audience?103
Actors' Bodies: Figure Placement?104
Techniques in Practice: Figure Placement in Citizen Kane?104
Actors' Bodies: Costumes and Props?106
Actors' Bodies: Makeup?107
Lighting?109
Composition?114
Balance and Symmetry?114
Lines and Diagonals?115
Foreground and Background?117
Light and Dark?118
Color?118
Two Approaches to Mise en Scene?121
The Frame in Two Dimensions: Mise en Scene
in German Expressionism?121
Combining Mise en Scene and Camerawork: The Frame
in Three Dimensions in French Poetic Realism?122
Summary?124
Film Analysis: The Functions of Space?126
Spatial Oppositions in Thelma & Louise?126
6 Cinematography?129
The Camera in Time and Space?133
Creating Meaning in Time: The Shot?133
Altering Time: Slow and Fast Motion?134
The Camera and Space: Height, Angle, and Shot Distance?138
Camera Height?138
Camera Angle?139
Camera Distance?141
Camera Movement: Exploring Space?144
Horizontal and Vertical Movement?144
Movement in Three Dimensions?145
Lenses and Filters: The Frame in Depth?148
The Visual Characteristics of Lenses: Depth of Field
and Focal Length?148
Techniques in Practice: Patterns of Camera Placement
and Movement?150
The Zoom Lens?153
Combining Camera Movement and Lens Movement?154
Through the Lens: Filters and Diffusers?155
Film Stock?157
Characteristics of Film Stock?157
Techniques in Practice: Lenses and the Creation
of Space?157
Light and Exposure?163
Film Stock and Color?163
Wide Film and Widescreen Formats?168
Stereoscopic 3D: Then and Now?169
Processing Film Stock?171
Special Visual Effects?171
Manipulating the Image on the Set?173
Creating Scene Transitions, Titles, and Credits:
The Optical Printer?175
Optical and Digital Compositing: Assembling the
Elements of the Shot?176
Performance Capture?177
Computer-Generated Images?178
Adding and Subtracting Frames?179
Digital Cinema: Post-Production?179
Digital Cinematography and Film Style?180
Summary?182
Film Analysis: Cinematography as a Storytelling Device?184
Entrapment and Escape in Ratcatcher?184
7 Editing?191
The Attributes of Editing: Creating Meaning Through Collage, Tempo, and Timing?193
Joining Images: A Collage of Graphic Qualities?193
Tempo?195
Shot Length?195
Shot Transitions?196
Adjusting the Timing of Shot Transitions?198
Techniques in Practice: Using Contrasting Imagery
and Timing to Romanticize the Outlaws in
Bonnie and Clyde?199
Story-Centered Editing and the Construction of Meaning?201
Editing and Time?201
Condensing and Expanding Time?202
Suggesting the Simultaneity of Events?203
Arranging the Order of Events?204
Editing and Space?205
Shot/Reverse Shot?206
Eyeline Match?208
Cutting to Emphasize Group Dynamics?209
Cutaways?209
Beyond Narrative: Creating Meaning Outside the Story?210
Continuity Editing: Conventional Patterns and
"Bending the Rules"?210
Continuity and Space?211
Continuity and Chronology?212
"Breaking the Rules": The French New Wave
and its Influence?215
Associational Editing: Editing and Metaphor?217
Soviet Montage?217
Summary?221
Techniques in Practice: Soviet Montage Aesthetics in
The Godfather?222
Film Analysis: Classical Editing?224
Editing in Notorious?224
8 Sound?227
Film Sound: A Brief History?228
Critical Debates over Film Sound?230
Freeing Sound from Image?233
The Relationship Between Sound and Image?234
Emphasizing the Contrast Between Onscreen and Offscreen Space?235
Emphasizing the Difference Between Objective
Images and Subjective Sounds?236
Emphasizing the Difference Between Diegetic Details
and Non-diegetic Sound?236
Emphasizing the Difference Between Image Time
and Sound Time?237
Emphasizing Differences in Image Mood and
Sound Mood?238
Three Components of Film Sound?239
Dialogue?239
Text and Subtext?239
Volume?239
Pitch?240
Speech Characteristics?240
Acoustic Qualities?242
Addressing the Audience: the Voice-over?243
Sound Effects?245
Functions of Sound Effects?245
Characteristics of Sound Effects?247
Techniques in Practice: The Human Voice as Aural Object?248
Techniques in Practice: Sound Effects and the
Construction of Class in Days of Heaven?253
Music?255
Functions of Film Music?255
Five Characteristics of Film Music?258
Techniques in Practice: Bernard Herrmann's Score
and Travis Bickle's Troubled Masculinity in
Taxi Driver?265
Summary?267
Film Analysis: The Human Voice and Sound Effects?269
Sound in No Country for Old Men: A Tradition
of Violence?269
9 Alternatives to Narrative Fiction Film:
Documentary and Avant-garde Films?275
Three Modes of Filmmaking: A Comparison?276
Documentary Film: "The Creative Treatment of Actuality"?279
Narrative Documentaries?281
Documentary Form?282
Voice of Authority?283
Talking Heads and Director-Participant?283
Direct Cinema and Cinema Verite?285
Self-reflexive Documentary?286
The Mockumentary?287
Two Theoretical Questions?288
Documentary Spectatorship?288
Ethics and Ethnography?290
Avant-garde Film?291
Surrealist Cinema?292
Abstract Film?294
The City Symphony?295
Techniques in Practice: Interpreting Abstract Films?295
Structuralist Film?299
The Compilation Film?299
Conducting Research on Documentary and Avant-garde Films: Locating Sources?300
Summary?301
Film Analysis: Interpreting Avant-garde Films?303
Analyzing Meshes of the Afternoon?303
Part Three
Cinema and Culture?307
10 Film and Ideology?309
Ideology and Film Analysis?311
The Institutional Enforcement of Ideology:
The Production Code and the Anti-Communist Witch Hunts?314
Anti-Communist Witch Hunts and Hollywood Cinema?316
Ideology and Film Spectatorship?318
Topics in Ideological Criticism?322
Racial Ideology and American Cinema?322
Gender and Cinema?327
Sexuality and Cinema?332
Disability and Cinema?336
11 Social Context and Film Style:
National, International, and
Transnational Cinema?343
Hollywood's Industrial Context: The Studio System
as Dream Factory?344
Classical Style?344
Economic Practice and Hollywood Convention?345
American Values and Hollywood Style?347
Hollywood Conquers the World??349
International Art Cinema?350
The Industry and Ideology of "Art"?352
Italian Neorealism?354
Third Cinema?355
Fourth Cinema?357
National and Transnational Cinemas?359
12 Film Stardom as a
Cultural Phenomenon?365
Stars and the Movie Industry?367
The Dynamics of Performance?369
The Star Persona?371
Stardom and Ideology?375
Stars and Subcultures?377
Fan Culture?379
13 Genre?381
What Makes a Genre??382
Major American Genres?388
The Western?388
Film Noir and the Hard-boiled Detective Film?392
The Action Film?393
The Science Fiction Film?396
The Musical?398
Using Genre to Interpret Films?401
Genre Film and Aesthetic Appeal: Cliche or Strategic Repetition??401
Genre and the Status Quo?402
Genres as Culturally Responsive Artifacts?403
Genre and Film Authorship?404
14 Film Authorship?407
The Idea of the Auteur: From Cahiers du Cinema
to the Sarris-Kael Debate?408
Auteur as Marketing Strategy: Old and New Hollywood?410
Studio-era Auteurs: Welles and Hitchcock?411
Blockbuster Auteurs: Spielberg and Lucas?413
Using the Auteur Approach to Interpret and Evaluate Films?413
The Auteur and the Consistency Thesis?414
The Life and Work of an Auteur: Studying Biographical Influence?417
Auteurs and Anomalies: Studying Aberrational Films?418
Auteurs and Ancestors: The Question of Influence?421
15 Cinema as Industry: Economics
and Technology?429
The Changing Structure of the Film Industry?431
From Oligopolies to Conglomerates?431
Horizontal Integration: Merchandise and Games?432
Globalization?433
Industry Labor Practices?434
Outsourcing?434
Star Compensation?435
Runaway Productions?435
Creative Centralization?436
Films as Products?437
The Blockbuster?437
The High Concept Film?437
New Modes of Marketing?438
Independent Film Culture?439
Two Independent Institutions: Sundance and Miramax?440
Film and the New Technology?442
The Rise of the DVD and Blu-ray?445
Film and Digital Technologies?446
Glossary?451
Bibliography?458
Index?463
Picture Credits?468
Part one
Introduction to
Film Analysis?1
1 Introduction?3
Cinema: A Confluence of Artistry, Industry,
and Technology?4
How This Book is Organized?6
Technical Tips?8
2 An Approach to Film Analysis?9
Understanding Audience Expectations?10
Expectations and Modes of Organization?11
Expectations about Genres, Stars, and Directors?13
The Orchestration of Detail?14
Motifs?15
Parallels?16
Details and Structure?18
Parallels and Structure?18
Turning Points?18
Repetition and Non-chronological Structure?19
Creating Meaning Through the World Beyond
the Film?20
Historical Events and Cultural Attitudes?20
Stars and Public Figures as References?21
Intertextual References?22
Meaningful References with Objects?26
The Goal of Film Analysis: Articulating Meaning?26
The Importance of Developing Interpretive Claims?30
Summary?30
Film Analysis: Reading Significant Details?31
The Orchestration of Detail in Pan's Labyrinth?31
3 Writing About Film?37
Getting Started?38
Keeping a Film Journal?38
Formulating a Thesis?38
Managing Verb Tense?39
Four Types of Writing About Film?39
The Scene Analysis Paper?39
"The Divided Human Spirit in Fritz Lang's The Big
Heat"?41
The Film Analysis?43
"The Anxieties of Modernity in Steamboat Bill Jr."?44
The Research Paper?46
"The New Vampire as Sympathetic Gothic Heroine in Tomas Alfredson's Let The Right One In"?49
Conducting Archival Research?57
The Popular Review?58
"Aliens as Apartheid Metaphor in District 9"?59
Part Two
Film Analysis?63
4 Narrative Form?65
Defining Narrative?66
Framing the Fictional World: Diegetic and Non-diegetic Elements?67
Within the Diegesis: Selecting and Organizing Events?69
Narrative Structure?70
Alternatives to Conventional Narrative Structure?72
Techniques in Practice: Narrative Structure in Stagecoach?74
Variations on Narrative Conventions: Beyond Structure?77
Perspective and Meaning?78
Character Subjectivity?80
Techniques in Practice: Noticing Shifts in Narration?82
Summary?84
Film Analysis: Analyzing Narrative Structure?85
5 Mise en Scene?91
Setting?93
Describing Setting: Visual and Spatial Attributes?95
The Functions of Setting?96
The Human Figure?97
Casting?97
Techniques in Practice: Same Film, Different Settings?97
Techniques in Practice: Same Setting, Different Film?98
Acting Style?101
Acting Brechtian: Distancing the Audience?103
Actors' Bodies: Figure Placement?104
Techniques in Practice: Figure Placement in Citizen Kane?104
Actors' Bodies: Costumes and Props?106
Actors' Bodies: Makeup?107
Lighting?109
Composition?114
Balance and Symmetry?114
Lines and Diagonals?115
Foreground and Background?117
Light and Dark?118
Color?118
Two Approaches to Mise en Scene?121
The Frame in Two Dimensions: Mise en Scene
in German Expressionism?121
Combining Mise en Scene and Camerawork: The Frame
in Three Dimensions in French Poetic Realism?122
Summary?124
Film Analysis: The Functions of Space?126
Spatial Oppositions in Thelma & Louise?126
6 Cinematography?129
The Camera in Time and Space?133
Creating Meaning in Time: The Shot?133
Altering Time: Slow and Fast Motion?134
The Camera and Space: Height, Angle, and Shot Distance?138
Camera Height?138
Camera Angle?139
Camera Distance?141
Camera Movement: Exploring Space?144
Horizontal and Vertical Movement?144
Movement in Three Dimensions?145
Lenses and Filters: The Frame in Depth?148
The Visual Characteristics of Lenses: Depth of Field
and Focal Length?148
Techniques in Practice: Patterns of Camera Placement
and Movement?150
The Zoom Lens?153
Combining Camera Movement and Lens Movement?154
Through the Lens: Filters and Diffusers?155
Film Stock?157
Characteristics of Film Stock?157
Techniques in Practice: Lenses and the Creation
of Space?157
Light and Exposure?163
Film Stock and Color?163
Wide Film and Widescreen Formats?168
Stereoscopic 3D: Then and Now?169
Processing Film Stock?171
Special Visual Effects?171
Manipulating the Image on the Set?173
Creating Scene Transitions, Titles, and Credits:
The Optical Printer?175
Optical and Digital Compositing: Assembling the
Elements of the Shot?176
Performance Capture?177
Computer-Generated Images?178
Adding and Subtracting Frames?179
Digital Cinema: Post-Production?179
Digital Cinematography and Film Style?180
Summary?182
Film Analysis: Cinematography as a Storytelling Device?184
Entrapment and Escape in Ratcatcher?184
7 Editing?191
The Attributes of Editing: Creating Meaning Through Collage, Tempo, and Timing?193
Joining Images: A Collage of Graphic Qualities?193
Tempo?195
Shot Length?195
Shot Transitions?196
Adjusting the Timing of Shot Transitions?198
Techniques in Practice: Using Contrasting Imagery
and Timing to Romanticize the Outlaws in
Bonnie and Clyde?199
Story-Centered Editing and the Construction of Meaning?201
Editing and Time?201
Condensing and Expanding Time?202
Suggesting the Simultaneity of Events?203
Arranging the Order of Events?204
Editing and Space?205
Shot/Reverse Shot?206
Eyeline Match?208
Cutting to Emphasize Group Dynamics?209
Cutaways?209
Beyond Narrative: Creating Meaning Outside the Story?210
Continuity Editing: Conventional Patterns and
"Bending the Rules"?210
Continuity and Space?211
Continuity and Chronology?212
"Breaking the Rules": The French New Wave
and its Influence?215
Associational Editing: Editing and Metaphor?217
Soviet Montage?217
Summary?221
Techniques in Practice: Soviet Montage Aesthetics in
The Godfather?222
Film Analysis: Classical Editing?224
Editing in Notorious?224
8 Sound?227
Film Sound: A Brief History?228
Critical Debates over Film Sound?230
Freeing Sound from Image?233
The Relationship Between Sound and Image?234
Emphasizing the Contrast Between Onscreen and Offscreen Space?235
Emphasizing the Difference Between Objective
Images and Subjective Sounds?236
Emphasizing the Difference Between Diegetic Details
and Non-diegetic Sound?236
Emphasizing the Difference Between Image Time
and Sound Time?237
Emphasizing Differences in Image Mood and
Sound Mood?238
Three Components of Film Sound?239
Dialogue?239
Text and Subtext?239
Volume?239
Pitch?240
Speech Characteristics?240
Acoustic Qualities?242
Addressing the Audience: the Voice-over?243
Sound Effects?245
Functions of Sound Effects?245
Characteristics of Sound Effects?247
Techniques in Practice: The Human Voice as Aural Object?248
Techniques in Practice: Sound Effects and the
Construction of Class in Days of Heaven?253
Music?255
Functions of Film Music?255
Five Characteristics of Film Music?258
Techniques in Practice: Bernard Herrmann's Score
and Travis Bickle's Troubled Masculinity in
Taxi Driver?265
Summary?267
Film Analysis: The Human Voice and Sound Effects?269
Sound in No Country for Old Men: A Tradition
of Violence?269
9 Alternatives to Narrative Fiction Film:
Documentary and Avant-garde Films?275
Three Modes of Filmmaking: A Comparison?276
Documentary Film: "The Creative Treatment of Actuality"?279
Narrative Documentaries?281
Documentary Form?282
Voice of Authority?283
Talking Heads and Director-Participant?283
Direct Cinema and Cinema Verite?285
Self-reflexive Documentary?286
The Mockumentary?287
Two Theoretical Questions?288
Documentary Spectatorship?288
Ethics and Ethnography?290
Avant-garde Film?291
Surrealist Cinema?292
Abstract Film?294
The City Symphony?295
Techniques in Practice: Interpreting Abstract Films?295
Structuralist Film?299
The Compilation Film?299
Conducting Research on Documentary and Avant-garde Films: Locating Sources?300
Summary?301
Film Analysis: Interpreting Avant-garde Films?303
Analyzing Meshes of the Afternoon?303
Part Three
Cinema and Culture?307
10 Film and Ideology?309
Ideology and Film Analysis?311
The Institutional Enforcement of Ideology:
The Production Code and the Anti-Communist Witch Hunts?314
Anti-Communist Witch Hunts and Hollywood Cinema?316
Ideology and Film Spectatorship?318
Topics in Ideological Criticism?322
Racial Ideology and American Cinema?322
Gender and Cinema?327
Sexuality and Cinema?332
Disability and Cinema?336
11 Social Context and Film Style:
National, International, and
Transnational Cinema?343
Hollywood's Industrial Context: The Studio System
as Dream Factory?344
Classical Style?344
Economic Practice and Hollywood Convention?345
American Values and Hollywood Style?347
Hollywood Conquers the World??349
International Art Cinema?350
The Industry and Ideology of "Art"?352
Italian Neorealism?354
Third Cinema?355
Fourth Cinema?357
National and Transnational Cinemas?359
12 Film Stardom as a
Cultural Phenomenon?365
Stars and the Movie Industry?367
The Dynamics of Performance?369
The Star Persona?371
Stardom and Ideology?375
Stars and Subcultures?377
Fan Culture?379
13 Genre?381
What Makes a Genre??382
Major American Genres?388
The Western?388
Film Noir and the Hard-boiled Detective Film?392
The Action Film?393
The Science Fiction Film?396
The Musical?398
Using Genre to Interpret Films?401
Genre Film and Aesthetic Appeal: Cliche or Strategic Repetition??401
Genre and the Status Quo?402
Genres as Culturally Responsive Artifacts?403
Genre and Film Authorship?404
14 Film Authorship?407
The Idea of the Auteur: From Cahiers du Cinema
to the Sarris-Kael Debate?408
Auteur as Marketing Strategy: Old and New Hollywood?410
Studio-era Auteurs: Welles and Hitchcock?411
Blockbuster Auteurs: Spielberg and Lucas?413
Using the Auteur Approach to Interpret and Evaluate Films?413
The Auteur and the Consistency Thesis?414
The Life and Work of an Auteur: Studying Biographical Influence?417
Auteurs and Anomalies: Studying Aberrational Films?418
Auteurs and Ancestors: The Question of Influence?421
15 Cinema as Industry: Economics
and Technology?429
The Changing Structure of the Film Industry?431
From Oligopolies to Conglomerates?431
Horizontal Integration: Merchandise and Games?432
Globalization?433
Industry Labor Practices?434
Outsourcing?434
Star Compensation?435
Runaway Productions?435
Creative Centralization?436
Films as Products?437
The Blockbuster?437
The High Concept Film?437
New Modes of Marketing?438
Independent Film Culture?439
Two Independent Institutions: Sundance and Miramax?440
Film and the New Technology?442
The Rise of the DVD and Blu-ray?445
Film and Digital Technologies?446
Glossary?451
Bibliography?458
Index?463
Picture Credits?468